That Kenya’s longest-serving spy master James Kanyotu was an enigma is not in dispute.
The man was rarely seen in public and avoided the media like the plague, so much so that few, even journalists themselves, could pick him out from a crowd.
In spite of his reclusiveness — he has been described several times as shadowy — his influence and power was palpable; there was no doubt who ran the country’s intelligence arm.
He is said to have known everything that happened in the country and who was behind what, especially politicians and dissenters who were opposed to the government.
Kanyotu took over from Bernard Hinga, independence Kenya’s first director of intelligence, and went on to serve for 27 years under presidents Jomo Kenyatta and Daniel arap Moi, until his retirement in 1991.
The controversial deaths of Pio Gama Pinto, Tom Mboya, JM Kariuki and Robert Ouko happened on his watch.
Kanyotu, who was 71 when he died, also oversaw the construction of the infamous Nyayo House torture chambers, where Kenyans who opposed the Moi presidency were locked up and tortured.
It is only in 2003, at the start of the inquiry into the Goldenberg scandal, that the public got a good look at Kanyotu — he was named as one of the co-founders of the two companies at the centre of the multibillion-shilling fraud, Goldenberg International and Exchange Bank.
Wrote the Nation at the time of his death: “He (Kanyotu) had co-founded Goldenberg International in 1990 and Exchange Bank in 1991 along with businessman Kamlesh Pattni, but apparently kept off the running of the companies, which were found to have siphoned billions of taxpayers’ money in fictitious gold, diamond and foreign exchange dealings that lasted three years.”
At the close of the inquiry in 2005, Kanyotu was subsequently charged in court alongside four others with conspiracy to steal Sh5.8 billion in only one aspect of the scandal that lasted between 1990 and 1993.
In a 2012 interview with the Nation , economics professor Terrence Ryan, who once served as economic secretary at the Treasury, estimated that it will take three generations for Kenya to fully recover from the effects of the scheme.
When he died in 2008, Kanyotu was estimated to be worth Sh20 billion. Among the properties he left behind was a palatial home in Redhill, Kiambu County, said to be just one of five luxurious homes he owned.
Various reports following his death said that Kanyotu, keen on privacy, preferred to operate from this majestic property, now a five-star hotel known as Sovereign Suites, rather than from the Special Branch office that was located at Kingsway House at the junction of Muindi Mbingu Street and University Way.
“ … this property was the hub of operations on the day Kenyatta died … the secret management of the transition was done from the confines of this home … from here, Kanyotu managed the state intelligence and had equipped it to be a mini-headquarters of intelligence service. It was only after he retired that some of the equipment was carried away from here,” wrote John Kamau of the Nation .
The property Kanyotu left behind spreads across the country, and includes three investment companies — Half Moon, Full Moon and Cloud Ltd.
He also had shares in Barclays Bank, Sameer Group, Kenindia Assurance, Kentmere (1986) Ltd, Middle East Bank, Kenya Tea Development Agency KTDA), Kenya Melamine Manufacturers, Collindale Security and Collindale Ltd.
He was also a shareholder in Kangaita Coffee Estate, Acacia Court, Acacia Renovators, Pine Court, Sonara Kwakanja Ltd, Shylocks Ltd and Metropolitan Health, besides owning huge chunks of land and buildings in Nairobi, Mombasa, Kiambu, Gilgil, South Nyanza, Kirinyaga and Nyandarua.
He left a fabulous empire with extensive interests in hospitality, banking, mining, insurance, real estate, aviation and large-scale farming.
In Kirinyaga, his ancestral home, he is listed as having acquired 37 parcels of prime land.
Eleven years after his death, the High Court is yet to decide how his estate will be divided among his four widows and children.
In an effort to jump this hurdle, in 2014 the court ordered all the children claiming a share of his property to undergo DNA tests.
The tests concluded that nine of the 10 children had been fathered by Kanyotu, apart from one, Willy Kihara Njoki.
Mr Kihara however insists that Kanyotu was his father, and has filed an application with the court seeking to stop all transactions involving Kanyotu’s estate.
Mr Kihara, in his suit, says that Kanyotu’s estate has lost more than Sh10 billion since his death, even though these claims are not supported by annexures.
As it stands, Mr Kihara has refused to undergo a second DNA test.
Interestingly, Kanyotu’s first wife, Mary Wanjiku, says that she recognised Mr Kihara, born in 1970, as her late husband’s son.
Ms Wanjiku’s children however say that since it was proved Mr Kihara is not their brother, he should refund Sh65 million that he got from the sale of property left behind by their father.
In May this year, the Business Daily reported that the Treasury had taken over idle assets of top officials in the Kenyatta-era who have since died, over family disputes that have denied beneficiaries access to their multibillion-shilling wealth.
Among these prominent individuals are Kanyotu, politicians JM Kariuki and Mbiyu Koinange, whose dividends and shares are held at the Unclaimed Financial Assets Authority (Ufaa) following family feuds that have frozen the sharing of their properties.
Worth noting is that Middle East Bank and Barclays surrendered dividends and shares belonging to Kanyotu.
Kanyotu’s family has since sold several parcels of land left behind, including the sale of a 1,400-acre farm in Nyandarua County for which the Kanyotu estate received over Sh300 million.
In the High Court is also a mind-boggling case filed against Ms Wanjiku by a company known as Marriot Africa International Ltd, which has claimed ownership of 500 acres of land allegedly sold by Kangaita Ltd, a company owned by the Kanyotu family.
Marriot claims that in April 2012, Kangaita Ltd sold the land to a firm known as Trendsetters Investment Ltd for Sh700 million.
The company claims Ms Wanjiku and her firstborn son John Kariuki Kanyotu executed the deal with Trendsetters.
The widow is said to have received Sh65 million from the sale and another Sh30 million to withdraw all cases regarding the land, LR No. 11261/76.
